THE EROTIC MYTH OF AMERICA
591
American author "Vernon Sullivan" in France. Their work is
curious enough to discuss in some detail.
Both write in the first person, as one would expect from dreams:
Chase in a most curious lingo which is intended to be American, but
which, despite a little obsolete American slang, could never be
written or spoken by any living person, Vian in fairly racy and
economical French with a good deal of argot. Chase would ap–
pear never to have set foot in the States, and he is extremely care–
less in his geography, flora and fauna (he plants mangrove swamps
in California!); Vian probably has spent a few days or weeks in
New York for
Les morts ant taus la meme peau
(the only novel
of
his
I have read set in that city) contains no very obvious blunders,
though the California of
Et on tuera taus les affreux
is, in every
way, a very odd state.
In
both authors all the women are in heat, from barely pubes–
cent schoolgirls to dowagers, just as in the "France" of the earlier
daydreams. Mr. Raymond's protagonists however nearly always resist
their improper advances-the most alluring women are likely to be
murderesses. Monsieur Vian's heroes, on the other hand, tend to
respond with equal fervor and superhuman potency, each fornica–
tion described in minute detail; but their lust is not disinterested.
The first, and most scandalous, of Monsieur Vian's books, ]
e
cracherai sur vas tambes,
reads rather like a paradoxically lus–
cious communist tract. "I" am a whiteskinned Negro, who has
moved into an unidentified small Midwestern town .after the lynch–
ing of my younger brother in the South for his attempted marriage to
a white girl. "I" intend to revenge my kid brother by seducing the
most desirable and socially prominent women available, telling them
when they are "in love" with me that I am a Negro, let them suffer
from their revulsion for a little, and then murder them
Ii La
Jack the
Ripper. "I" succeed with two millionaire's daughters, and then am
myself caught and lynched. To earn my living while carrying out my
plan, I take a job in a book-store, which gives me excellent possibilities
of discussing the lack of intellectual culture among white Americans,
with discursive comments on the mass manufacture of best-sellers,
and so on. This also puts me in contact with the junior high school
kids, all of whom (of both sexes) try to seduce me; I sleep with all
the girls, but they are too insignificant for my revenge.
